Bailout Rejection Sends out Financial Shockwaves, But It's Also an Invigorating

[NicholeW.]

Bailout Rejection Sends out Financial Shockwaves,
But It's Also an Invigorating Moment for Democracy

By William Greider, TheNation.com. Posted September 30, 2008.

Bowing to public outrage, the House rejected the bailout and Wall Street swoons. The political bedlam in Washington is as real as it gets.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/100875/ 🔗

Most Americans, I predict, will not join the cheering. Too much destruction lies ahead, both in the financial system and in the real economy where people live and work. ... Too much deceptive sleight-of-hand is already embedded in Paulson's approach for ordinary mortals to even recognize what Paulson intends to accomplish.

The essential political failure, in my view, is that Congress did not step up and assert the full emergency powers of government in this epic crisis, that is, take temporary control of the entire financial and banking system so regulators and policy makers can steer the US economy to safer ground, compelling the private institutions to follow their lead. ...

... The bailout will belong to the club and the club will manage it.

See preludium to this opinion here, from Sept. 21, 2008 by the same author. Also originally at The Nation.com http://www.alternet.org/story/99660/wall_street_is_licking_its_chops_at_the_bush_team%27s_multi-hundred_billion_dollar_giveaway_plan/ 🔗

[RebeccaFog]

I wondered what ever happened to Greider. I thought he retired.  He writes clearly which is unusual for someone who writes about those topics.